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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25840051">The Gift of Sight</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carry_On_Moss/pseuds/Carry_On_Moss'>Carry_On_Moss</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Recovery Isn't Linear (and Neither is This Fan-Fiction) [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Genderfluid Loki (Marvel), Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Inner Child, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Loki Does What They Want, M/M, No Sex, Recovery, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, past emotional abuse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:27:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,771</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25840051</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carry_On_Moss/pseuds/Carry_On_Moss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki gifts Thor and Tony with a 6-year old Tony Stark and says something about "the gift of sight." Whatever that means.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tony Stark/Thor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Recovery Isn't Linear (and Neither is This Fan-Fiction) [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1184534</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>84</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Gift of Sight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my non-linear recovery fic. Chronologically, this takes place after Barnes-Rogers Sounds Like a Pirate Themed Jug Band and Veteran's Day. </p><p>I'm using they/them pronouns for Loki.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dating an alien god king had its advantages. For example, Thor never thought Tony's many extremely weird habits were that strange at all. He also brought with him a host of weird habits of his own, most of which were... compelling. It took a lot to Surprise Tony Stark, and Thor did that. Sometimes his erstwhile sibling Loki also did that, but in far less enjoyable ways.</p><p>Which is how the genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist found himself face to face with himself at the common room kitchen table at 4 in the morning and not where he really wanted to be, which is in the arms of his gigantic blond God of Thunder boyfriend... bringing the thunder.</p><p>"He is very cute!" Thor boomed at the child, who looked vaguely offended in response.</p><p>"Okay" Pepper said, already tapping away on her Starkpad "First things, first, what will we call the younger Tony."</p><p>Tony briefly wondered how weird he should think it is that Pepper was completely unruffled by being called over at 4am to deal with the fact that Loki had "gifted" Tony and Thor with a 6 year old Tony Stark and disappeared into the night. But, if he was being honest this was actually not the strangest thing she'd been called over to deal with and half of those happened before he was Iron Man.</p><p>"Little Tony" he said.</p><p>Pepper raised an eyebrow, but seemed to be typing "Little Tony" on her Starkpad.</p><p>"And I can be big Tony" he added "It'll be like I have a pizzeria. I've always wanted a pizzeria"</p><p>"You already own nine, we need to focus" Was her curt reply, to which Thor let out a hearty laugh and Little Tony harrumphed, but was clearly covering up the fact that he was EXTREMELY interested in pizza. Tony remembered absently that Jarvis hadn't let him eat pizza much at that age. Didn't think it had enough vegetables.</p><p>"JARVIS" Tony said absently "will you call Ray's and get my usual?"</p><p>"Right away, sir" the AI's voice answered and Tony immediately realized that the voice of his dead butler, his only kind father-figure, might be a bad thing for a 6 year old Tony to hear. Pepper and Thor seemed to realize it at the same time and all three stared at the boy.</p><p>"Um..." the adult Tony said, unhelpfully</p><p>But Little Tony only looked excited. "You made Jarvis into a computer program?!" He suddenly stood up on his chair waving and looking towards the ceiling for the concealed speakers the AI used to communicate. "Jarvis! Hi Jarvis, can you see me?!"</p><p>"I can indeed, Master Tony" JARVIS replied with warmth.</p><p>The six-year-old continued to interact with the AI, asking questions about the pizza he ordered, the future, as well as some fairly technical inquiries as to his specs regarding memory, run time, and potential data storage issues.</p><p>Pepper wrote something on her Starkpad. Silently, and with a lot of movement in her eyes, she asked Tony if Little Tony knew about modern events like Jarvis' death. Tony shrugged at her in response. Loki hadn't exactly given him an instruction manual when they woke him and Thor up, said something about the gift of sight and then hopped back through whichever dimensional hole they'd torn in the fabric of space-time that got them through the tower's defenses to begin with.</p><p>"Bruce and Sam are on their way here from the compound, but the auxiliary team has all the Quinjets out so they're driving. With traffic, they won't get here until 9 or 10. Steve and Bucky are flying out from Oregon. We had a Stark Jet at LAX, so it's meeting them in Portland, and they'll be here around lunchtime."</p><p>"Steve and Bucky!" Tony whined "Why are they coming, they're retired and living their best life, they don't need to be here for this, Pep, why did you even tell them!"</p><p>"Because" she answered calmly "despite your cavalier attitude, this is a big deal and Steve and Bucky are some of your oldest friends.”</p><p>"Bucky" Tony said flatly.</p><p>Pepper raised an eyebrow in question.</p><p>"Bucky is one of my oldest friends. His husband is fine, I guess."</p><p>Pepper ignored him and continued “Rhodey is also coming with Clint and Natasha, but they were on mission in Europe and won't get here until tomorrow."</p><p>Tony continued to fake-pout, taking advantage of his child-self’s complete absorption with JARVIS to not worry about setting a bad example. He didn’t want to tear these people from their lives, they were all doing important stuff, they didn’t have to come running to his aid over every little magic time-travel doppelganger issue he ran into. </p><p>Thor slapped a reassuring hand on Tony's shoulder, rocking him in his seat "Anthony, my heart, don't be so surly, Steve loves you as much as we all do and he would not want to miss out on being here for you in your time of need."</p><p>Tony dropped it, but he felt the same pang of guilt that he always felt when the subject of Steve Rogers came up. Even all these years later, he respected the man, he knew Bucky loved him, and that was about as far as it went. They just never ever ever saw eye to eye. On anything.</p><p>"STEVE ROGERS? AND BUCKY BARNES?!" Little Tony suddenly jumped back into the conversation. "I know STEVE ROGERS and BUCKY BARNES?" he shouted again, excitedly flapping his arms by his sides.</p><p>'Stop that' Tony thought, but miraculously didn't say. His father had always hated it when he flapped his arms. 'You look like a God damn chicken, stop that shit and be a man!" the older Stark had yelled at him more than once when his youthful exuberance had become too much for his little body.</p><p>Thankfully, Pepper realized he was having an outbreak of emotion and took over talking to Little Tony about Captain America and his best friend Bucky while Tony quietly freaked out inside.</p><p>"Tony, my love" Thor all but whispered into his ear "what is wrong."</p><p>"My dad" Tony whispered back, and explained how his father had hated for him to get too excited about anything.</p><p>"But it's adorable!" Thor whispered a little too loudly.</p><p>Tony looked at his six-year old self, filled to bursting with excitement to meet one of his idols. It was adorable. Even adjusting for what he knew to be his considerable narcissism, Little Tony being genuinely happy and enthusiastic about something was damn cute.</p><p>Not embarrassing, not girly, not like a chicken. Just a normal child, expressing normal childhood emotions. Certainly not anything to yell at or discourage. He leaned against Thor's shoulder for support while the God, sensing his distress, rubbed his hand in vigorous strokes up and down Tony's arm. It wasn't exactly soothing, but it was the Thor version of it.</p><p>Why had his dad been so afraid of this? Tony was struck with how unthinkable it would be to admonish this child for his joy, and yet his father had done it to him and he'd spent years believing there was something wrong with it. With him. </p><p>Little Tony caught him looking and immediately shut down, his little face shuttering and becoming  as blank and desolate as a child could be. "I'm sorry." he said quickly, looking down at the table top like he was in trouble. Tony knew he would have been if Howard were here.</p><p>Pepper's glare of equal parts 'FIX THIS!' and pity spurred him out of his thoughts and into action.</p><p>"Hey" he said cautiously trying to draw Little Tony out of his funk "It's okay, Captain America is really cool and it's okay to be excited to meet him. Did you know that I was Bucky's best man at their wedding?"</p><p>Little Tony's head shot back up, all animated joy again "Captain America and Bucky Barnes are MARRIED?!" he shouted. "SO COOL!" but then he realized that he was starting to flap his arms again, and plastered them back to his sides, looking fearful and ashamed.</p><p>Tony reached a hand out towards his younger self "Tony" he said both to get the kid's attention and also to steel himself for working out his childhood issues in front of his new boyfriend and his ex at ass-o-clock in the morning. "Howard told you it's not okay to get excited about things, I know." He paused and waited for the kid to nod in sad agreement before going on "but Howard was wrong." The child's shocked expression was enough to spur him onward. "Howard was wrong about a lot of things. Your enthusiasm and excitement are beautiful, and it's not only normal, but wonderful that you get excited about things. If you didn't get excited about things, this company wouldn't exist. Neither would the Avengers. So don't hide your enthusiasm, Howard isn't here to stop you anymore, okay?"</p><p>The boy nodded solemnly before reaching out across the table for Tony</p><p>"Do you want a hug?" he asked, but the kid was already out of his chair and rounding the table. It was all Tony could do to get out of his own chair and crouch down in time for the little body to slam into his and they were hugging for the first time since the child had arrived.</p><p>Big Tony held Little Tony as he cried, rocking him and petting his hair, it was strange, but as they sat there on the floor together, he felt lighter and more himself than he had, maybe ever. After a while, Little Tony told Big Tony in halting sentences about how mean Howard had been when he was excited about things, and about one incident Tony had actually forgotten where Howard had snapped at him to "keep it together!" when he was excited to present his fully functional static electricity-powered robot at the school science fair. He ended up presenting the robot on the verge of tears, which Howard also hadn't liked. "That wasn't fair" Tony told his younger self "he had no right to tell you that, you're allowed to feel however you feel and express that in any safe way you want."</p><p>Right about then, Thor joined their cuddle pile on the floor, and asked Pepper to join as well. Tony wasn't surprised to find the impeccable woman gracefully tucked around him and Thor and Little Tony, hugging them all without hesitation, her expensive heels kicked off somewhere and her legs crossed at the ankle and tucked delicately under her designer skirt.</p><p>They stayed that way until the pizza came.</p>
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